SITUATION REPORT Ethiopia Drought Response October 15, 2016 GENERAL CONTEXT The drought of 2015-16, combined with extensive subsequent flooding and disease outbreaks, continues to have a negative impact on the lives and livelihoods of 9.7 million Ethiopians and the disruption of basic public services. Overall food security and agricultural production remain severely affected, with cascading effects on livelihoods, nutrition, health, water, sanitation, education and other sectors. Field notes by the Agriculture Knowledge, Learning, Documentation and Policy (AKLDP), indicates that the impact of the 2015 El Nino episode will remain for rural farming communities in southern and eastern Tigray. Harvest and livestock losses increased substantially and debt values increased by 60 percent in Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) households and 57 per cent in non-PSNP households, taking the total outstanding debts to US$271 in southern and US$ 310 eastern Tigray. According to the study, households are likely to continue to incur additional borrowing from different sources to meet their basic food needs. Indebtedness is a major concern for most households and many see the effects of the 2015 El Niño drought continuing throughout 2016, and potentially into 2017 and beyond. Moreover, average food prices for staples are 30% higher than September 2015, contributing to high GAM rates in the affected parts of the country. As to the funding for the response, there is still $582 USD gap from the total $1.62 Billion required. Out of the total $ 1 Billion is allocated to sectors and $26 Million for multi-sectoral response. Out of the required, $10.8 Million is pledged, according to UNOCHA’s update. 1 According to the Education Cluster, 1.3 million children were unable to access learning opportunities as a result of drought and flooding and this number increased to four million in June 2016. About 4,650 schools have no access to drinking water and 2,150 schools have no latrines in emergency affected areas. Government and other partners provided some 3.1 million school children with school feeding until June. School feeding and provision of learning supplies and close monitoring have positive impact in reducing school dropouts. OVERVIEW OF THE RESPONSE BY SECTOR In support of the overall response coordinated by the Government of Ethiopia, Save the Children is implementing a multi- sectoral drought emergency response programme in over 60 woredas in Somali, Afar, Amhara, SNNP, Oromia and Tigray Regions. Nutrition and Health During the reporting month of September; 143,250 of Children less than five month and 29,466 PLWs were screened for their nutritional status in our operational woredas. 1,047 children have been admitted and treated for severe acute malnutrition in the respective nearby nutritional rehabilitation centers. A total of 8,784 under five children and 8,389 PLWs with moderately malnourished cases were linked to the existing WFP supported TSF program. Apart from SAM and MAM case identification and treatment a total of 3,218 PLWs and caretakers of children under two years old were supported under IYCF-E component of nutrition responses. Comparing the previous month overall SAM cases admission slightly decreasing but also the screening cover lower than the previous month. However moderately malnourished U5 and PLW targeted in supplementary feeding program significantly increased comparing with last month. High GAM rates of over 30% are reported from some of the worst affected areas. As usual while has been delivering the above mentioned services we have also strengthened 194 and 26 OTP and SC sites respectively across the operational areas mainly in Bale zone of region and North Wollo & Waghimra zones of Oromia and Amhara regions respectively. The key components provided are: enhancing the capacity of GoV health workers as well as handed out essential drugs and equipment. Food Security & Livelihoods (FSL) The past month has seen a number of evolving humanitarian situations in our intervention areas and our teams have been busy responding. Save the Children has been implementing different emergency projects to respond for a range of drought induced disasters. We have supported 121,948 beneficiaries in agricultural interventions in response to drought. In the current month, 131,122 people were reached and 315 personnel were trained on improved agronomic practices. In addition, 31,840 households were reached by emergency seed distribution and 52,174 households were reached by cash transfer and 23,318 more households benefited from livestock feed and animal services The overall rainfall performance in most Belg and Kiremt benefiting areas of Ethiopia was normal and above normal, except in Waghimra which was a bit below normal. As a result, the food security situation is expected to be improved even though there is a gap in nonfood requirements. However, seasonal forecasts and a high likelihood of a La Niña occurring during the 2016 Deyr season suggest rainfall will likely be below average in southern and southeastern pastoral areas. Deyer/Hageya rain which is supposed to start mid-October has been delayed in most of the areas and this in turn is expected to put pressures on water and pasture, deterioration of livestock body conditions, reduced livestock productivity, and below-average livestock prices. In these areas, food security may deteriorate beyond the outlook period, particularly if the 2017 Gu (March to May) rains are also limited by La Niña. Accordingly, Save the Children will continue to closely monitor overall food security situation and provide agricultural technical assistance, supplementary animal health programs, relief food aid and cash transfer in Waghimra, Afar and Somali regional state. Water and Sanitation Hygiene (WASH) As there is an improvement in availability of both surface and ground water in most areas of the country, the need for water trucking has been reduced and the program focus on provision of permanent water scheme construction, rehabilitation of existing water schemes affected by the flood, hygiene promotion and capacity building activities, as well as the response to AWD which is reported separately. More specifically, the rehabilitation of 16 water schemes and 28 new water schemes constructions were completed, 11 Sample water points checked for water quality / bacteriology, 109 Wash committee members trained in water scheme management and maintenance. The intervention is being complemented by providing on jobs training on the distribution of household water storage supplies to ensure safe water storage and management at household level and hygiene promotion activities. 2 Education in Emergencies (EiE) The new academic year will officially commence in beginning of October 2016. The last belg assessment has identified that the number of children across drought affected areas are 4 million. Out of these the government is going to provide school feeding for 2.9 million children during the academic year. There is assumption that school feeding for 1.1 million children will be supported by humanitarian community. One of the early warning issues is that the current protest in some regions may disturb the teaching –learning process. As a potential conflict mitigation measure, the government provided training to teachers and head teachers on positive development in Ethiopia, and the importance of peace and security in education. The government has also declared state of emergency. In order to make Save the Children’s response need-based and address the need of drought affected children in Afar and Somali regions, a rapid assessment has been conducted from 02-08 October 2016. Based on the needs assessment report, the EIE response plan preparation for 2016/17 academic year is in the pipeline. Moreover, for 2017 first phase HRD Meher assessment, preparation of data collection tools is in progress by the Education Cluster. Child Protection in Emergencies (CPiE) Baseline assessment was conducted in CPiE intervention woredas to find the risk factors and level of vulnerability of children in the drought affected population. The assessment clearly revealed that there are children separated from their parents and legal guardians due to the current drought. The finding shows that girls in 6-17 and boys in 12- 17 years age ranges as well as children with disability are at high risk of vulnerability as a result of the drought. Result of the assessment will be used as a bench mark during project evaluation to gauge the positive impacts of our intervention. On the other hand our consecutive resilience sessions for distressed children start to bear fruits. The reports from the field indicate that children attending the resilience sessions are showing improvements in psychological wellbeing. Currently 2100 children (1074 girls and 1026 boys) are attending the resilience building program in Waghimra, Siti and Abala zones. Parents and caregivers of these children are also attending separate resilience sessions which designed to adult counterparts in the same zones. Awareness raising campaigns has continue to empower the community and staff towards quality service provision. During reporting period, 4846 adults (2615 female) and 2732 children (1090 girls) reached through mass events and community dialogues. Furthermore; 182 adults (59 female) and 40 children (20 girls) received trainings on child protection and developmental topics. Child Safeguarding (CSG) Child safeguarding training has been provided for 62 Heads of Woreda